Twin Parasites
By Dominus Princeps
Chapter Five: Time Keeps On Slippin'...
The Master Chief dove out of the way of the lunge attack from the lava monster. He slid more than normal, as his shields were more slippery on the rock than the armor would've been by itself. However, he'd been trained in this suit—he knew how to deal with its strengths and its annoying gimmicks. Curling, the Spartan turned the slide into a double-forward roll. His feet gained traction at just the right moment for him to drive off of them and leap backwards away from a jet of red-hot fire that the serpent spewed at him.
"Amazing...I wonder how it projects flame from its mouth," Cortana mused, fascinated with the beast. The Chief rolled his eyes and pulled the shotgun off of his back. It didn't have the range or accuracy that the Battle Rifle had, and the human regretted not fastening the trusty standard issue rifle tighter to his back. But what was done was done. The Master Chief leveled the shotgun with the snake-thing and fired a shot at it to get its attention. It growled in anger as a couple pellets dug into its hide. To his dismay, the others merely deflected off.
"Get closer; your shotgun will have more power at a shorter range," Cortana said as if he were a raw recruit.
"Out of the frying pan...?" the Spartan muttered darkly before shortening the gap between himself and the fire-spitting serpent. It roared and spat more fire at him, grazing his right arm as he dodged to the left. The shotgun started to glow.
"Your gun is melting! Be more careful!" Cortana warned.
"Shut up and let me fight," the Chief growled. He waited for the gun to return to a reasonable shade of gunmetal before dashing at the beast again. He ducked a jet of flame and fired the shotgun at a range of about six feet. The snake-thing howled as the eight-gauge Magnum buckshot ripped into its crimson stomach. It dove into the lava. Master Chief pumped the shotgun, and the spent shell dropped into the magma. Because of the movement of the molten rock, the Spartan couldn't get a definite reading of the thing's whereabouts using his motion sensor. Suddenly, his shields flared as magma sprayed across the arena. The Spartan barely avoided ruining the Mark VI to compliment the previous suit as he dove away from the stream of fire that came from behind him. He rolled to his feet and swung the shotgun around. Rather than use it at such an extreme (for the shotgun) range, the human pulled three plasma grenades off of his belt with one hand and slung the shotgun with the other. He primed all three and threw them one by one in rapid succession. All three stuck to the throat right below the jaw of the beast. It appeared surprised that it was being bombarded by the objects, but soon it realized that they weren't merely sticky rocks. The snake-thing howled in anguish as the trio of plasma grenades exploded on its throat. It reared back and sprayed fire randomly all around the arena. The Master Chief dashed right at it.
"What do you think you're doing?" Cortana's voice was a mix of surprise and worry.
"You don't have to like it," the Chief answered, pulling out his Energy Sword and activating it. When he reached the edge of the stone platform, he took a broad leap and wrapped his left arm around the thing's neck. He used his momentum to swing around onto its back. With a tight swing, he lopped its head off, and then quickly sprang back onto the stone platform. The Spartan turned to watch the decapitated serpent sink slowly into the molten magma.
"Well, that was an experience," Cortana chuckled nervously.
"I get a bad feeling that that wasn't the only one," the Master Chief muttered darkly. As if the snake-thing's death had triggered it, the stone platforms suddenly rose to their original positions from the lava.
"That's a little weird. I wonder how killing that serpent would've caused platforms to rise..." Cortana mused, "I can't see any kind of switch..."
Shrugging it off, the Chief took a running leap and grabbed a hold of the edge of the nearest platform. He hoisted himself up and jumped to the next one, and the next one, and the next, until he had reached the hatch into the next room. He pressed the switch to turn the shield off and stepped through the hatch into an enormous cavern.
"Oh, my God...this is entirely natural..." Cortana breathed, "Look at something else! Like the ceiling!"
"We have other issues," the Spartan reminded her. He dive-rolled to avoid a quartet of heat-seeking missiles.
"Oh. Right. Sorry," Cortana sighed, noticing the Pirates through the Master Chief's visuals.
ooo
"Well, that's that. I wish John was here to see me complete this...I guess now that this thing's activated, the Flood will be gone and I can look for him," Samus sighed.
"Excellent work, Reclaimer. You should be very proud of your effort. Your battle-skin scans as only a Class-three; my creators fought the Flood in Class-twelves," a metallic voice called. Samus whirled to face 343 Guilty Spark.
"Oh, not you...will you just leave me alone?" she called over the noise of Halo's activation.
"Unfortunately, it appears as though this ring has lost much of its original functionality. This ring will be unable to signal the other rings, and its effect will be purely local," Spark rambled on, apparently ignoring Samus.
"What does that mean?" the bounty hunter asked.
"Please specify," the AI replied.
"What do you mean by 'signal the other rings'?" Samus asked.
"When one ring is activated, it sends a signal at super-luminal speeds instructing the other rings to activate as well, increasing the effective radius of effect to twenty-five galactic radii," Guilty Spark answered.
"And, what 'effect' will be 'purely local'?" Samus inquired.
"Oh, how silly a question! Surely you must know the function of the ring!" Spark giggled in a patronizing voice.
"Remind me; I seem to have forgotten," the bounty hunter was getting irritated with the little AI.
"Originally the ring systems would terminate all life within twenty-five galactic radii, but this one is damaged, and its area of effect would be this planet and a short distance beyond it. We have approximately two hours before it activates completely, as the fusion reactors that power this sector must be reactivated—they were abstractly shut down some time ago," Guilty Spark remarked.
"All...life?" Samus gaped.
"Well, all intelligent, calcium-containing life large enough to sustain the Flood. You seem surprised. Has your memory been so faulty?" Spark said as an afterthought. Samus took a step back. She turned to the controls for Halo and aimed her Arm Cannon at them. Samus fired Power Beams until heat waves shimmered in front of her Arm Cannon, but the Beams passed right through the semi-solid controls.
"What a foolish effort. Energy weaponry would not destroy tactile-holographical panels, and if it could, it would be too late to stop Halo's processes," Guilty Spark chuckled, bobbing in front of Samus. Samus switched to the Wave Beam, charged it up, then harnessed the Beam Combo system. A thick, undulating tendril of electricity snaked out from her Arm Cannon, striking the AI.
"Ooooooaaaaaaohhhhwooooow!" Guilty Spark screeched. He crashed to the ground, blue glow fading quickly. Samus kicked the dormant AI angrily. He tumbled off the transparent ring-shaped platform she was standing on. She glanced at the countdown timer her suit had automatically displayed when she activated the ring.
1:54:31.
"I've gotta get out of here and find John..." Samus muttered. She sprinted outside to where she had left the vehicle. It had a fine layer of snow over it, but Samus didn't notice as she leapt into it and turned it on. Samus pushed the acceleration pedal to the floor and was thrown back into her seat as the vehicle jumped forward.
1:52:12.
ooo
The Master Chief dodged another set of missiles and dashed across a small bridge spanning a stream of lava. He took cover behind a stack of boxes which the Pirates quickly vaporized, leaving a glowing orange thing. The Chief touched it, and suddenly he felt extra weight on his waist. Somehow, an extra box of rockets for the rocket launcher had materialized on his waist! Deciding not to complain, the Spartan shouldered the launcher, fit a pair of rockets onto it, and leveled it with one of the Flying Pirates. They jeered at him in their scratchy voices and fired more bolts of plasma. However, because they were occupied with their taunts, they didn't see the 120mm super-sonic missile that streaked at the nearest one until it was about two feet away from him. Confused, the Pirate didn't even attempt to dodge. He was blown apart as the rocket impacted and exploded. The other two were knocked off course by the splash damage and the shockwaves from the blast, giving the human a chance to lock on and fire the second rocket in the launcher. The Pirates were expecting the menacing explosive this time, and dodged it. The Chief was forced to avoid their returning fire instead of reloading. However, his evasive tactics delayed the Pirates long enough so that by the time they heard the roaring of the rocket's return trip, it was too late for them to avoid it. The second missile hit the Pirate on the left, detonated his jetpack, and lit fire to the fuel pod on the right Pirate's jetpack, sending him tumbling into the lava, where he howled in agony for half a second. The Spartan pushed the empty rocket tube out of the launcher and loaded a full one in, then locked the pair of rockets in place. He slung the rocket launcher and walked over to the edge of the small rock island he was standing on. A platform hovered over the lava. The Master Chief jumped onto it and felt a feeling of disorientation. It seemed as though he were sinking...
"Chief, you're about to sink into the lava!" Cortana cried. The human glanced below him and saw that the lava lapped at the edge of the platform. He really was sinking! The Chief jumped hurriedly onto a higher rock outcropping that jutted out from the wall. To his amazement, the platform he had been standing on mere seconds ago began to rise steadily upwards till it leveled out at its original altitude.
"Strange...I've never seen anything like that before..." Cortana remarked.
"We haven't seen a lot of these things before," the human reminded her, mantling up to another outcropping. When he reached the top of this series of rock platforms, he stopped. A large, flat control center was in the middle of the room. The outcropping had about eighteen or nineteen feet between in and the control center platform.
"You're not about to do what I think you are..." Cortana trailed off. The Master Chief backed up as much as he could, sprinted for two or three strides, then leapt off into space. He cleared the gap and rolled to break his momentum, as the platform was not large enough for him to stop any other way. A large bridge was suspended above the platform, making it impossible for the Chief to move any further.
"Check the panels: there may be some way to lower that bridge," Cortana suggested. The human walked over to a panel and pressed a button that looked right. The bride slowly lowered till it was level with the control center.
"How do you always know which button to press...?" Cortana wondered aloud. The Spartan shrugged and stepped out onto the bridge. He heard a rumbling, and suddenly the hatch at the bottom of the cavern exploded open. Through it came...
"I thought I had heard you in here!" Ridley cackled. He spread his wings and thrust himself into the air. But the Chief was already in the next room and barging through the hatch in that corridor by the time Ridley had reached the control center. The Master Chief ran haphazardly through the adjoining rooms and halls, taking broad leaps over rivers of lava and ignoring various monsters that crossed his path. He heard Ridley's heavy, metallic, pounding footsteps behind him...and they were getting louder.
"He's approximately one hundred yards behind you and closing...there's gotta be some way we can thwart him," Cortana informed the human. The Spartan made an impossible jump over a wide lava pool, opened a hatch, and found himself looking at a circular platform surrounded by metal rings. There was a pad to the left, and a hologram was in the center. The Chief hurriedly pressed the button on the pad and ran onto the platform. When he passed through the hologram, the platform shot upwards. The human heard Ridley's angered shrieks below him growing fainter and fainter as the elevator rose. The Master Chief let out a deep breath and shrugged his shoulders to hike the strap of the rocket launcher up higher. The elevator lurched to a halt as it reached the top of the tunnel. The Spartan walked off the platform and opened the hatch, then whirled as the elevator platform exploded. Ridley surged through the hole in it and grinned.
"Hello there, human scum! Ready to die?" he cackled. The dragon charged the Master Chief, who had already begun to flee through the adjoining halls.
"You can't run forever!" Ridley taunted, crashing through stone walls. The Chief vaulted a crumbled stone pillar and found himself in the very arena where he and Samus had fought the Flood earlier...and the place was repacked with Infection Forms, Combat Forms, and Carrier Forms. The Spartan pulled his shotgun off of his back by reflex and pumped the chamber, ejecting the spent shell in it. He fed rounds into it until it was full and ducked a wild swing from an angry Combat Form. The Chief blasted it to bits, then was thrown backwards, shields drained.
"Forget about something?" Ridley sneered, rearing back. The technologically enhanced dragon charged the prone human, who quickly got to his feet and dodged the wild attack. A quartet of Combat Forms leapt at Ridley, who swept them away with a backhand claw slash.
"How about we get rid of our buddies and then fight?" the Chief growled.
"This is much more fun!" Ridley grinned menacingly, hunkering down to sweep an Ultrathermal Flamestrike at the Master Chief. The human jumped over it and knocked a Combat Form down with a eight-gauge Magnum round as he landed. The Chief took one look at Ridley and then sprinted for the hatch behind the dragon. Surprised, Ridley didn't react until the Spartan had shouldered his way through nearly the entire mob of Flood forms. Ridley caught the brunt of a large number of exploding Carrier Forms, and was forced to retreat to take on the berserking mob of Combat Forms.
"You just wait, human! I'll get you yet!" Ridley screamed.
ooo
1:20:58.
Samus jumped over an angular sculpture and landed softly. She sprinted around a corner, was caught on a patch of ice, and slipped and fell. She slid on her back down a large hill and tumbled haphazardly when she hit level ground. When Samus finally stopped skidding and sliding everywhere, she picked herself up and looked around. Almost abruptly, the snow stopped and grass and trees began.
"What in the..." Samus breathed. She stepped onto the grass and then stepped back into the snow, as if to try and verify the phenomenon's credibility.
"I don't believe it..." she muttered. Samus turned and gaped. Not two hundred yards away was beach! Also...an upended vehicle similar to the one she had found in the snow drifts earlier.
"They're always turned over, aren't they?" she mused.
1:17:33.
Glancing at the timer, Samus decided that there was no time to waste. She sprinted for the vehicle and yanked hard on its side. It quickly turned so that its wheels were planted in the sand. Samus hopped into the driver's seat and started the vehicle. She pushed the acceleration pedal to the floor and the vehicle spun its tires in the spongy sand and then began to move. It accelerated quickly, and Samus was soon blazing down the beach. She saw a crashed, olive-green ship and turned to drive over to it. Her Scan Visor indicated that it was in too bad condition to fly, but Samus checked for supplies. Nothing. She moved on.
1:11:20.
Samus saw a hill loom in the distance. She drove up it, turned, and saw a purple, horseshoe-shaped ship parked on a deck. Her Scan Visor informed her that the ship was in perfectly good shape. Samus jumped out of the vehicle and made a mad dash over to the ship. She found the cockpit and analyzed the controls with her Scan Visor.
"Hmm...looks like it works just like a Chozo Skimmer..." Samus muttered. She fired up the craft and turned it slowly and carefully. It shuddered as it rose; apparently, its engines were a little cold and unused. Samus glanced at her timer and winced. She took the ship higher and then pushed the throttle all the way forward. She sent a message to her ship's AI asking it to search for John's AI's frequency.
"Lady, you don't have much time to search for him..." the AI warned.
"I don't care. Locate him!" Samus growled.
"Searching...Ah. He's fleeing towards Tallon Overworld...and he's being pursued by everyone's favorite Space Pirate leader," her AI commented.
"Send me the coordinates. I'm going to go save him," Samus said, narrowing her eyes.
1:05:47.